This seven-strong chain has expanded beyond Cambridge to Salisbury, Royston in Hertfordshire and Ampthill in Bedfordshire and has scooped the OLN Drinks Retailing Award for Independent Drinks Retailer of the Year three times.

The market is recovering and off- trade sales are surging as drinkers forgo the pub in favour of a tipple at home, so now might be a good time to open a new store. But if you are considering this there are various legalities you need to be aware of, one of which is a fundamental asset – the premises licence.

One offers “big brands, big savings”, the other “top brands, bottom prices”. They’re the new discounters threatening to make their mark on the alcohol category in the same way that Aldi and Lidl have before them.

In 2013 70% of TV sets sold in the UK were classified as big – 26in-32in – and nearly 16% were were “jumbo” – 43in or bigger. This is up 4% from the year before, according to TV Licensing’s annual Telescope report on the nation’s viewing habits.

This innovative London wine merchant recently opened its third store in Clapham’s Abbeville Road, to join outlets in Hackney and Crouch End. It offers a broad range of wines with a particular emphasis on Portugal and Italy, as well as spirits and craft beers and ciders – which have their own section called the Brew Testament. Enomatic machines, online sales and themed tastings are all part of the service. All wines are colour-coded according to style, food-matched and concisely described both in-store and online. The Telegraph Magazine named Bottle Apostle Britain’s best small wine shop in 2011. Owner Andrew Eakins tells OLN about it.

Repeat something often enough and it becomes a truth. Repeat it a few more times and it becomes a Twitter hashtag. At least that’s what’s happened to the most widely cited figure for the cost to UK society of alcohol harm.

If you are involved in the retail of alcohol off the premises it is highly likely that you are aware of the schemes now in place in many parts of the country banning retailers from selling various beer and cider brands that have an abv of 5.5% and above.

Along with a bunch of verdicts on drinks that included Pernod, WKD and a beer called Arse Liquor, the Portman Group independent complaints panel last month ruled that 50cl cans of Tennent’s Super were in breach of the organisation’s marketing code.

There’s a well-stocked gift shop at the Cotswolds Distillery in the heart of the English countryside. There are Cotswolds keyrings, candles and cufflinks. Pessimistic umbrellas share shelf space with tastefully branded notepads and books on gin and whisky by noted authors. About the only thing that’s not on the shelves yet is bottles of spirits.

For some time, canned ale has been the dowdy cousin of flamboyant premium bottled ale. The humble format has seen sales slide 2.3% for premium ales and 6.6% for standard ales, according to Marston’s 2014 Premium Bottled Ale Report, while more than 140 products were launched in the PBA category last year – compared to fewer than 20 in canned ale.

Three Scandinavian producers made the top 10 European brewers in our poll of industry experts and opinion-formers. The traditional European powerhouses of Belgium and Germany still got a look- in, but the impact of the craft brewing revolution has reached as far as Iceland, Spain and Italy, as the list of those that didn’t make the top 10 shows. In addition to the emergence of Denmark and Norway, Italy has reaffirmed its case as the microbrewing scene to keep an eye on, with the country’s vote split between five of its up-and-coming producers.

Favourite Beers opened in 2010 and set itself up as the Gloucestershire centre for beer and cider lovers. The shop scooped OLN’s Drinks Retailing Awards for Independent Beer Retailer of the Year 2012 and Independent Cider Retailer of the Year 2013.

Bordeaux has grown wine exports to the UK by 750,000 cases in the past four years, making it one of the most recession-proof categories around. Latest off-trade figures show sales grew 14.2% in volume and 18.6% in value in the past year (IRI, 52 weeks to March 1).

Like the local football team, Burnley brewer Moorhouse’s wants to be in the Premier League. But while the Lancashire town’s footballers defied all the odds to achieve their goal last season, brewery boss David Grant admits: “We’re not quite there yet.”

Sales of organic products are on the up — they grew 2.8% in the year to March 2014, reversing several years of decline, according to UK certifying body the Soil Association. But it’s a different story for wine.